About DWF

Dancing With Fireflies is a lifestyle blog for people with Chronic Illnesses like Lyme Disease. I travel and explore the world in order to challenge my diagnosis. Along the way I share my stories, tips, and recipes.

You don't have to accept the limits of your diagnosis. I challenge you to chase your dreams and live life beyond it.

I'm a writer, but I am also a survivor. I've lived with Chronic Lyme disease for over 35 years. In that time I've learned not only how to survive but how to thrive, navigate around this life altering disease, and how to just accept who you are and press your limitations. That is what I hope to share with you. I am always learning new recipes, trying new things, exploring this amazing planet, and hopefully inspiring people who might feel like Lyme disease is the darkness all around them and they don't know how to shine.

Weekly we feature articles about traveling and tips to make exploring the planet easier for people with health limitations . I love food and coffee, so there are also weekly features about the great food or coffee finds I have discovered in my explorations or maybe even a favorite recipe for those days when I am home. Fridays are for freewriting. Weekends are also great times for discovering new blogs or old posts.

The idea of freewriting is that you don’t have to be grounded to one idea, you can be free and write from the whims that come from your heart. I do a lot of free writing. It really helps me to clear my head and let the words out. As a writer I am faced with the fact that Writers don't write because they simply can, they write because they must!

When I was a little girl my family moved A LOT. I didn’t like it, not ever. But as a child most of us are not given much of a choice when it comes to the affairs of grown-ups and so each year we moved, not just houses but states, schools, and nothing stayed the same.

Growing tired of the constant moving and never knowing stability, I just wanted to stay someplace and set down roots. I was tired of leaving my friends, scared about meeting new ones, and a place where children still believe in angels and faeries. (I still do)

We were in Texas one summer to visit family when I experienced my first Firefly moment. Alone outside, I sat in the growing darkness and looked out over the flat lands and up at the clear skies. The sky seemed endless and I felt so small and powerless. “If you are really out there, listening to me, if I am a part of something special, then show me.” As children are stubborn and need signs.

I didn’t understand what I was seeing, to me it was magic. As I felt my dreamy world open up to the possibilities of being part of a greater collective, the stars I thought I was looking at began to dance. Moving in a sweet perfect moment of swirls and sparkling harmony, the stars became dancers across the navy dance floor. This was my first firefly moment, opening up to the idea of being a part of something bigger than yourself, dancing for the joy of movement, and joining the collective vastness of lights in the dark sky. Magic!

When you live with a chronic illness, you sometimes feel like that disease wants to steal the light from your life. Many of us often feel so alone in the world and it is hard to shine when you don't feel like anyone understands you.

For many years I lived with the depression and fear of Lyme Disease. Suicide is the #1 killer of people who have Lyme disease and I was quickly heading into that great darkness. When I learned how to take control of my disease and master my fear, I realized that by talking about what I was going through, sharing my Lyme story, I was becoming a spark in the darkness. Like fireflies, I searched for others like myself and found that not only was I attracted to those surviving Lyme, but I also found that all around the world people were drawing closer to me for the stories I could share. Together we could light up the night and be dancing fireflies.

One of the best ways to make this blog a success is for us to hear from our readers about what they like and what they want more of. I love hearing your suggestions and trying to make them work out.

The more you comment, the better this place will get.

Who Writes This Stuff?

Hey there, Crysta here. I currently live Seattle Washington. I started writing as a way to overcoming trauma and adapting to the idea of adulthood and coping with living with Lyme Disease. From there my love of writing grew until I started guest blogging for other sites, then web magazines, then bigger sites.

I currently freelance write for several sites and my dream of becoming a reality has turned from daydream to reality thanks to the incredible support I've had from my loving husband and amazing family.

I love vegetarian food and travel, and even more.. I love writing about my adventures and sharing them with you here in hopes that you might be inspired as well. I also devote some time to writing about Lyme Disease and my struggles with living with this devastating disease. I was infected as a small child and left undiagnosed until I was 30. So I spend some time talking about that in hopes that I can help others who are also part of the Lymie world like I am.

Life hasn't always been easy and it isn't meant to be. I've been homeless, hopping from benches to couches, been broke and broken. But I have always held the belief that your dreams are worth chasing. That spark of light in the darkness, the ones that fill you with that insane hope that you can change your life, they will carry you through the worst days and challenge you to be more than you were yesterday.

There were days that I didn't know when or where my next meal would come from, but I never doubted that I am a writer, that I have a story to tell, and one day I'd sit on exotic beaches writing or sipping tea from London reading through my stories. And I have!

Image Credit

The Administrators of this site make all reasonable efforts to obtain copyright holders’ consent to publish the images represented on this site. Where the copyright holder is not known, the Administrators would like to hear from any copyright owners who are not properly identified on this site so that we may make the necessary corrections. Please contact Crysta@Dancingwithfireflies.net. or use a comment box on the most recent box to contact us.

This policy is valid from 22 September 2008 onward. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me and my guest authors. For questions about this blog, please contact Crysta@Dancingwithfireflies.net. We write for our own purposes. However, we may be influenced by our background, occupation, religion, political affiliation or experience. This blog abides by word of mouth marketing standards. We believe in honesty of relationship, opinion and identity. . The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog owners. If we claim or appear to be experts on a certain topic or product or service area, we will only endorse products or services that we believe, based on our expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider. This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.

Share this:

Like this:

16 comments

Crysta, I am pleased to tell you that I’ve awarded you the Blog of the Year Award 2013! There’s no obligation to accept, I understand completely if you don’t. Anyway, thanks for reading and liking my blog “adicanada” I appreciate your support. For details about the award, please see my post http://wp.me/p3ujR2-hg Have a Happy Holiday and All the best for you on the New Year!! Adrian B.

Very nice to read up and learn a little more about you. I feel genuinely honoured to be reblogged by you now! Just seeing the sheer amount of followers you have excites me. I hope to get as big as you eventually.

Would there be, that there were words to describe the ethereal beauty and poignancy of the words which you have so lovingly shared. That being said, it is time for lover of the written word to do some of her own. I am enamored by the opportunity to be a part of this blog. Thank you Crysta